Category: Baking

Valentine’s Day has always been thought of sweets, flowers and any other cheesy stuff from our loved ones. But this is also the day of the year wherein we are almost having a calorie-overload. Aside from the sugar rush in our body, this will surely make every diet-conscious freak for a day.

Image from life-without-fat.com

One very good idea to do on this Valentine’s day is to have a bouquet of fresh veggies instead of chocolates and teddies on it. You can also add a bowl of sauce to spice up the bouquet of veggies.

This idea is for sure anew to you but this is something that would make your diet-conscious loved one drool and even crave for more on this Valentine’s day.

I know there are available low-calorie chocolates and other sweet stuff anywhere you can drop by, but this idea of having the fresh veggies is something really different and unique. Plus, this one’s healthy though

But, you really wanted to stick to the usual Valentine’s day presents such as those mentioned above, you can instead bake your own cake and other sweet goodies, and try to experiment at your kitchen, just like what I did and will be posted post-Valentine’s day, using healthy ingredients. Such of these kitchen stuff is the low fat milk. Yes, you can substitute that one to any milk supposedly needed in your ingredient lists.

In fact, you can have a lot of healthy treats from Tropicana Slim where you can experiment, create and have a low calorie healthy meals not just on Valentine’s day but on any days of the year. I have tried myself the low fat milk and still the result of my baked yummy treats are still great. I tasted no difference on them. But sure enough, those are healthier as those contain lesser fat.

Experimenting with my oven and other kitchen stuff is such a fun thing especially when things turned out right. So far, I got no failed experiments yet or maybe, my boys who used to be my critics are just that biased as to them, all of my baked goodies really tasted the best and that I need to bake more of these and those. Nothing, actually, became left overs for them.

My hubby really loves the moistness, chewiness and crusty brownies I used to bake for him. But with the cream cheese available in the fridge, I surprised him with the combination of chocolate brownie added with a swirl of cream cheese.

Here’s how I baked it.

I, first, prepared the oven; preheated it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I lined my 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper. I did not grease it anymore, but you may opt to do it. After having my oven and pans ready, I started mixing my ingredients. Using a bowl of my standing mixer, I creamed the ½ cup of softened (take note, not melted, but rather softened) margarine and 1 cup of granulated brown sugar. Once incorporated, I added one by one the two large eggs and made sure to beat well. After which, I added ¾ cup of cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and again, made sure to mix well and set this aside.

This is how the Chocolate Brownie batter would look like.

Using another bowl and a handheld mixer, or if you only have one mixer, you can use the same you used when making the batter but make sure to clean and dry the paddle before using, I creamed the 8 oz of softened at room temperature the cream cheese, 1 large egg, 4 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until well-combined. With the sugar, you can add more depending on your preference.

This is how the Cream Cheese filling would look like.

After preparing the two above, I poured the ¾ part of the batter into the pan and spread the cream cheese filling on the top of the batter layer and dollop the remaining ¼ part of the batter on top of the cream cheese filling using a spatula and swirl into the cream cheese mixture.

I then baked the brownies for about 30 minutes. But you can check until fully cooked. This should be cooled completely before cutting and serving, but in my case, only 1/3 of the baked Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake Swirl was left because my little man could not resist the mouth-watering and really drooling slices of this one.

Should I say, everything that has happened to my life now are all God’s plans for me and not mine alone. Most of the things that we have been longing for our lives, those what we WANT do not usually go and jive with what the Lord God wanted and planned for us.

One good example for this is my never planned and never in my life to have and to be a home baker. I did not expect that people will love and would come back at my doorstep knocking for me to bake some treats for them. And yes, the unexpected things happened just in God’s perfect time where all of these provide me not just financial assistance but relaxation and a stress-free living with my little family.

This is the reason why I just recently started my Facebook page, Sweet Treats of Gagay.

I just so hope that you guys will spare some time to visit and like my page, or better yet, make your orders of my sweet treats then. 😀

Honestly, I found it real hard where to buy my baking needs here in the province, in Agusan del Sur. Comparing the availability of my baking needs here, I can’t find a shop where almost all of the ingredients are to be bought in one shopping instance. I still need to jump from one store to the other. The worse thing, I need to travel an hour from one municipality to another just to complete my needs.

Image not mine.

So I really went to other town and tried to sport for some. However, instead of baking ingredients, I got some Qs from another customer asking for how to change strings on an electric guitar. I was like surprised at first but when she pointed to the silicon mold of a guitar, it was just that time I grasped what she really wanted to ask. She was just actually throwing some joke which didn’t crack at me at first.

Moreover, I still manage to get some substitute ingredients and able to prepare goodies tasty and really mouth-watering.